LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is an optical remote sensing technology that measures properties of scattered and/or reflected light to find range and/or other information of a target. Analogous to radar technology, which uses radio waves in the non-visible spectrum, LIDAR determines the range to an object by measuring the time delay between transmission of a light pulse and detection of the reflected signal. LIDAR technology has been applied in numerous fields, including without limitation, geomatics, archaeology, geography, geology, geomorphology, seismology, remote sensing and atmospheric physics. A type of LIDAR uses laser pulses for ranging and is often referred to as LADAR (Laser Detection and Ranging).
Traditional LIDAR systems are often effective at detection and ranging for ranges of tens of meters or greater, but often have difficulty in providing accurate range measurements for nearer objects due to initiation and start-up transients and signal non-linearities that occur in traditional LIDAR circuitry.